KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas says six businesses across the city have been shut down as part of ongoing enforcement efforts targeting illegal gambling machines.
“City Council has already passed an ordinance about ensuring that they are not lawful machines to have in a gas station or a corner store. We have seen slot machines. We’ve seen other illegal gambling devices, which usually lead to people being there for a number of hours. It’s led to other public safety concerns, increased 911 calls, all types of other activity that frankly we don’t want to see,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said.
Mayor Lucas said officials issued 30 citations for ordinance violations, such as operating without a proper license, in addition to the six closures.
“Unregulated slot machines have operated openly in Kansas City for years, contributing to increasing risk of crime in neighborhoods and preying on vulnerable residents,” the mayor’s post reads.
He also said the Kansas City Public Safety Task Force has spent the past month working with store owners across the city to remove illegal machines.
“This is a strong example of how coordinated, place-based enforcement can help improve neighborhood conditions. The Multidisciplinary Public Safety Task Force’s compliance and enforcement efforts continue to deliver the kind of follow-through our residents expect to address illegal operations and improve public safety across Kansas City,” said Assistant City Manager Lace Cline, Public Safety & Emergency Services.
“Kansas City deserves to be a safe community, and often these small steps are the way that we get there,” Lucas said.
Unregulated gambling machines have operated for years in convenience stores, gas stations, and other businesses throughout Kansas City.
“We will make sure that our laws aren’t being violated, that we’re not creating more breeding grounds for crime, for public nuisances, for loitering, and lots of other activities that we hear time and again from our neighborhood leaders that are unacceptable,” Lucas explained.
Recent enforcement action by Kansas City’s public safety task force is part of a broader effort to address environmental conditions that contribute to crime.
“Whether it be our work to root out gas station drugs like Kratom and others in Kansas City or slot machines in a lot of our gas stations and others, we see why their repeated activities, the number of folks that are there not to shop, not to be part of normal business commerce, but to break the laws, to violate the spirit of the laws in our state, in our city, and we’re making sure we address it and those violations,” Lucas said.
The mayor’s announcement comes just days after Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson’s office partnered with Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s office to hold such businesses accountable.
To give businesses a fair opportunity to come into compliance, Prosecutor Johnson set July 1, 2026, as the deadline. After that date, business owners found with illegal gambling devices could face potential criminal charges, including first-degree promoting gambling and possession of a legal gambling device.
The change follows a federal court ruling last month confirming that slot machines and other gambling devices operating in businesses outside of licensed casinos violate Missouri’s gambling statute.
“Be advised: Any company welcoming illegal slot machines into their business could be subject to civil and criminal penalties. Unregulated gaming devices are illegal, and we are going after them with the full force of the law if they are not unplugged,” said Attorney General Hanaway.
“The message we want to communicate to the stores that have these machines in them is no matter what you’ve been told by the vendors trying to place these machines in your stores, they’re illegal,” Hanaway explained during a news conference on Wednesday. “The best way to stay out of trouble is to unplug them, shut them down, perhaps even return them to whoever delivered them to your store.”
At this time, officials have not identified the businesses that were shut down. However, Mayor Lucas said enforcement efforts are ongoing and will continue.